The Crunch

The Crunch was launched by D.C. Thomson on 20th January 1979. An advertisement described it as "the sensational new paper with the most dynamic bunch of stories ever!" A surprisingly edgy (for the normally conservative D.C. Thomson) title, it introduced Ebony, a character who was not only the first female action hero in a British boys' comic, but also (astoundingly, for the time) black! Other characters featured included the spacefaring Starhawk, who would go on to appear in several other titles; Hitler Lives (by Pat Wright), Arena (by Alcatena), The Mantracker (by Alberto Salinas) and The Walking Bombs (by Denis McLoughlin). The title lasted just 54 issues to 26th January 1980 before being merged with Hotspur.